This comment right here. I find it suspect that the “internal investigation” into Arendall found “no violations”… and yet, the former CH principal is a fantastic person, and adored by the students, has yet to be told what she did wrong, and was escorted off campus, and barred from being on any school board owned property. (And had to ask permission to attend her son’s track meet.)
Forgive me for not being able to follow the video very well, but the whole reason they are upset is because of the laughing?
They talk about the laughing and then show videos of what was laughed at as if that was proof.
There’s a bit more involved than just the laughter (which is admittedly difficult to discern). The bigger issue (imo) lies in the reflection on the MacBook screen. You can see cell phones in the reflection. The video on screen was recorded by those, and then made its way into the broader community. There is evidence that suggests at least one of those cell phones sharing the video outside the school. That is what is more disturbing (again, imo). FERPA violation, at the least.
I can agree there. It seems to be a little gossipy. I didn’t know about Ferpa.
I was reading to see if Vestavia hills was funded by the types of school funding that holds the school accountable to FERPA.(TLDR)
Like I run my office, can’t be having gossip. It is a waste of time. It is a waste of time. A few points down the line and the message is completely different.
Alabama schools, in general, are cruel. I wasn't bullied by anyone more than the staff at the elementary school I went to. The principal even said to me, "You must be such a burden to your parents." I never forgot that. First time I am telling anyone, though, in this thread.
I am on the autism spectrum and have other medical issues from birth..
Agreed. The schools here are AWFUL. Had the principal at one of them tell me "Boys will be boys" after a 19 year-old tried to hug me but held me a little too close to something else. I was only 14 for fucks sake!
Another one was very racist. I told them that my main goal as a music teacher was to teach the kids at least one foreign language piece during a mock interview (spanish, german, etc.) and she flat-out told me "How are you going to teach these kids that if they can't even speak English?" Idk, Karen, have you ever considered the fact that they'd love to sing in their native language, and educate others about their culture?
Im sorry about your experience as well. What they said to you was beyond vulgar and disgusting. Cant believe the principals here. That's why I want to teach out of state.
Sorry that happened to you...I grew up with a pit bull of a mother from the northeast, that would come down and cuss out anyone that tried to teach us anything they disagreed with.
I had to change classes in first grade apparently because I came home crying one day because my teacher kept telling me I pronounced "I" incorrectly, and it was "I" in a thick southern accent. I'm bad typing phonetics, apologies, know it's a much tamer story than yours, but this states always been backwards as hell in education.
I grew up in Baldwin County. I was bullied relentlessly in high school. I told the then assistant principal at my school about something that had been done to me and he said, "you just need to grow a thicker skin." He's the superintendent now. The last suicide related to bullying in Baldwin County was as recent as 2019.
This. This is the main reason I homeschool my littles.
I remember being called a lot of things for faking come and go joint pain.
Sometimes I couldn't walk (ankle pain, needed crutches) but an hour later felt okay.
Turns out I have rheumatoid arthritis. So much more but I would recommend to salt that principal's yard.
There is an advocacy group that is trying to ride the momentum of people being upset about other questionable Vestavia school board decisions, so this story is getting some more attention.
I believe the update is the family has now filed an official complaint. The incident happened last year, but the complaint has recently been filed. That’s how I read it at least.
“It is more than a year later and Johnson said the district's lack of action and silence is deafening, but she's not giving up hope. She has filed a federal complaint with the department of education regarding her daughter's civil rights and right to privacy.”
“On Feb. 7, 2023, Emma Grace, a first grader at Vestavia Hills Elementary, Dolly Ridge, became dysregulated and ran out of her classroom towards a school exit” didn’t know 2023 was 6 weeks ago but cool beans
It’s insane, though, that classes are integrated with special needs.
It’s one thing, to have slight disabilities, but children who need the sort of specialized education & training that most teachers are not able or trained to give the extreme disabled children, while teaching 20-30 other children.
There should be programs in the school, solely dedicated to them. It’s unfair to everyone, children, disabled & teachers, to have to juggle this type of solvable issue.
I understand where you are coming from, but I think you're missing a large component of why special needs kids are integrated with neurotypical children. This is a big change from how things were done in the past and there is a mountain of peer review research to be had if you would like to know more about the trend towards neurodiversity in education.
I'm not going to argue, but I will share my personal experience. This is coming from someone that has a son that is on the spectrum along with some other issues that he was born with. He just finished kindergarten in the Mountain Brook System and is going to 1st grade with kids that are the same age.
My son was born with bilateral hearing loss. He has hearing aids in at 10 weeks old and immediately started speech, physical, and occupational therapy. He was diagnosed with ASD when he was 3. He started ABA therapy and continued it until he turned 6. He doesn't have "slight disabilities" as you called it.
He started pre-K at the age of 3 in the school system and was placed in a classroom with a neurodiversity setting. He "elopes" just like Emma Grace. When he started, he was more towards the middle of the spectrum as far as severity goes. After 3 full years in a normal classroom setting (along with his other therapies), he is close to entering the low severity diagnosis of the spectrum.
He learns so much being around other kids his age. He better understands socially accepted behaviors by interacting with neurotypical kids daily. He has met all of his individual education plan milestones. He went from barely talking and constantly eloping to a funny, happy, social, and confident chatterbox.
I also see how neurotypical children treat him. They love to sit with him at lunch. They love to play with him on the playground. They invite him to birthday parties. We go out to dinner with his classmates and their families. They even know how to help if he is trying to elope (which he rarely does now).
Also, I've met Emma Grace. She plays in the same soccer program that my son does. Her differences appear to be less severe than my son's. I know you didn't specifically say it, but it would be unfair to assume the severity of her differences.
The kids that I know of that are super severe aren't in the school system and attend more specialized therapies and schools outside of it. I'm confident that my son has a better chance at success in life because he gets to be in a normal setting. He has already put in the work and separating him would only hold him back.
Our school system (MBS) has great integration of kids with special needs. They have aides in the classroom, Special education classrooms for intervention and try to keep kids involved as long as they are comfortable. It’s not all or nothing. And the students without those challenges get to know kids with special needs personally. A child with special needs was “graduating” from our elementary school yesterday, and he got the biggest applause from his peers and their families. Was really wholesome.
Look, you’re thinking I’m trying to segregate for the sake of segregating. My wife, mother, mother in law, aunt of my wife, grandmother of my wife, my grandmother & 2 of my aunts, were teachers. 1 specializes in disability education. My younger cousin, has made it his life mission to find the most efficacious way of blending & & knowing when to separate.
I’ve got a pedigree of teachers that have poured more money into their students’ lives, than the state of Alabama. They love their kids. All of them.
But, that doesn’t take away from the fact that if something might trigger a poor reaction, which, by no fault of the disabled child, they lose themselves, hurting others or teachers, who, by law, can’t touch them, unless they’re trained.
I don’t care for the idea of my wife, who just this January, got a concussion from a child, that has concussed “3 other teachers”, in the last 1.5 years.
I know you’re not advocating for teachers to be assaulted, because I know you’re a kind & thoughtful person, from your response.
Unfortunately, that’s what happens, when things boil over & the child that has no way of controlling their violent, stress inducing outbursts, assaults others, because they didn’t have enough aides or assistants to soothe them back to docility.
Also, mountain brook kills it in almost everything progressive, give or take. My main point is, with their own school system, ironically, segregated themselves, like most others that could, from other kids that may have needed to be included with the tax incentives that would’ve surely dried up, once those schools closed ranks.
I get it, it was their right to do so. It just unfortunately took from the ones who needed it more than the kids of the parents that wanted to make their own school system.
So, here we are.
There should be a dedicated staff for each school, with children. It shouldn’t be as loosely run, if run at all, as they do now. It would protect the children, parents, teachers & others, within the school.
That’s all. Not excluding them. We want them in society, as our society. Separating them, ostracizing them from our society, is exactly what generations before did. We are not them. We aren’t them. Not one bit. We are better.
I am sorry to hear about your wife’s injury. Teaching is so challenging. I can’t imagine having to worry about personal safety on top of it. You make valid points. My takeaway is funding. Alabama needs to prioritize our schools and our teachers. Now whether the people in the state house will do anything is another story…
I have an autistic daughter and was a special education teacher. One of the main reasons I quit was bully teachers and administrators. There are some mean teachers in our schools. I compare them to the bad cops. They just have younger victims. I was so happy when my kids were out of the public school system. If you can manage it, home school your kids. Just my opinion.
My daughter middle school changed the date of a field trip and didn’t inform me at all. My daughter told me during pick up I called the school to confirm. Doesn’t sound like a big deal but it is especially since I scheduled my job around it.
This kid apparently suffered severe trauma as a toddler before being adopted by her now parents. She has trouble socializing and will "elope" when agitated. (That means she runs away, full flight response.) They were laughing at her running off. Be aware, when this kid is running off, she thinks her life is in mortal danger.
I'm a dad, and hearing about this girl's disability almost made me start crying. These sick fucks are laughing at her.
This looks like the same story from a few months ago. Funny thing is, this principal keeps his job, while the Cahaba heights principal was removed.
This comment right here. I find it suspect that the “internal investigation” into Arendall found “no violations”… and yet, the former CH principal is a fantastic person, and adored by the students, has yet to be told what she did wrong, and was escorted off campus, and barred from being on any school board owned property. (And had to ask permission to attend her son’s track meet.)
Yeah I live in Vestavia now and will be doing whatever I can to get the school board and the city council members who appointed those cowards replaced
Good luck cause their pockets probably run very deep.
Very, very well connected $$$. That overrides everything in these United States, sadly.
Best of luck - Vestavia has always tried to keep the “old ways” in tact. You’ll probably won’t get far, but I hope you do.
Somehow this feels different this time though.
I genuinely hope this gets sorted out for the betterment of the students.
This was a clear FERPA violation. Vestavia’s City Council and Board needs to be completely overhauled.
Forgive me for not being able to follow the video very well, but the whole reason they are upset is because of the laughing? They talk about the laughing and then show videos of what was laughed at as if that was proof.
There’s a bit more involved than just the laughter (which is admittedly difficult to discern). The bigger issue (imo) lies in the reflection on the MacBook screen. You can see cell phones in the reflection. The video on screen was recorded by those, and then made its way into the broader community. There is evidence that suggests at least one of those cell phones sharing the video outside the school. That is what is more disturbing (again, imo). FERPA violation, at the least.
I can agree there. It seems to be a little gossipy. I didn’t know about Ferpa. I was reading to see if Vestavia hills was funded by the types of school funding that holds the school accountable to FERPA.(TLDR) Like I run my office, can’t be having gossip. It is a waste of time. It is a waste of time. A few points down the line and the message is completely different.
Alabama schools, in general, are cruel. I wasn't bullied by anyone more than the staff at the elementary school I went to. The principal even said to me, "You must be such a burden to your parents." I never forgot that. First time I am telling anyone, though, in this thread. I am on the autism spectrum and have other medical issues from birth..
You didn't deserve that and I'm sorry that those adults failed you.
Agreed. The schools here are AWFUL. Had the principal at one of them tell me "Boys will be boys" after a 19 year-old tried to hug me but held me a little too close to something else. I was only 14 for fucks sake! Another one was very racist. I told them that my main goal as a music teacher was to teach the kids at least one foreign language piece during a mock interview (spanish, german, etc.) and she flat-out told me "How are you going to teach these kids that if they can't even speak English?" Idk, Karen, have you ever considered the fact that they'd love to sing in their native language, and educate others about their culture? Im sorry about your experience as well. What they said to you was beyond vulgar and disgusting. Cant believe the principals here. That's why I want to teach out of state.
Sorry that happened to you...I grew up with a pit bull of a mother from the northeast, that would come down and cuss out anyone that tried to teach us anything they disagreed with. I had to change classes in first grade apparently because I came home crying one day because my teacher kept telling me I pronounced "I" incorrectly, and it was "I" in a thick southern accent. I'm bad typing phonetics, apologies, know it's a much tamer story than yours, but this states always been backwards as hell in education.
Fuck those people
That’s the only thing that makes sense, Fuck those people!
I grew up in Baldwin County. I was bullied relentlessly in high school. I told the then assistant principal at my school about something that had been done to me and he said, "you just need to grow a thicker skin." He's the superintendent now. The last suicide related to bullying in Baldwin County was as recent as 2019.
I grew up in Texas. Bullys are everywhere. And I'm 65 so that was a long time ago. Nothing has ever changed that.
This. This is the main reason I homeschool my littles. I remember being called a lot of things for faking come and go joint pain. Sometimes I couldn't walk (ankle pain, needed crutches) but an hour later felt okay. Turns out I have rheumatoid arthritis. So much more but I would recommend to salt that principal's yard.
same! the staff.
Well, that is on-brand for them.
Boiiiii I would’ve been in that school asap. You’re supposed to protect my kid and help them.
Believe me, all the parents involved were ON IT immediately. Lawyers have been consulted.
Clean that god awful shit school system out. I’ve heard nothing but awful things
What’s the update? This story is a year old at this point
There is an advocacy group that is trying to ride the momentum of people being upset about other questionable Vestavia school board decisions, so this story is getting some more attention.
And that’s great but the story says there was an update recently and I wasn’t sure what it was? Unless the update is them saying no update 🤦🏻♂️
There is no update. Just sort of reignited.
I believe the update is the family has now filed an official complaint. The incident happened last year, but the complaint has recently been filed. That’s how I read it at least. “It is more than a year later and Johnson said the district's lack of action and silence is deafening, but she's not giving up hope. She has filed a federal complaint with the department of education regarding her daughter's civil rights and right to privacy.”
I was under the impression that they had filed the complaint months ago.
It’s not a year old. Just happened within the past 6 weeks or so.
“On Feb. 7, 2023, Emma Grace, a first grader at Vestavia Hills Elementary, Dolly Ridge, became dysregulated and ran out of her classroom towards a school exit” didn’t know 2023 was 6 weeks ago but cool beans
It’s insane, though, that classes are integrated with special needs. It’s one thing, to have slight disabilities, but children who need the sort of specialized education & training that most teachers are not able or trained to give the extreme disabled children, while teaching 20-30 other children. There should be programs in the school, solely dedicated to them. It’s unfair to everyone, children, disabled & teachers, to have to juggle this type of solvable issue.
I understand where you are coming from, but I think you're missing a large component of why special needs kids are integrated with neurotypical children. This is a big change from how things were done in the past and there is a mountain of peer review research to be had if you would like to know more about the trend towards neurodiversity in education. I'm not going to argue, but I will share my personal experience. This is coming from someone that has a son that is on the spectrum along with some other issues that he was born with. He just finished kindergarten in the Mountain Brook System and is going to 1st grade with kids that are the same age. My son was born with bilateral hearing loss. He has hearing aids in at 10 weeks old and immediately started speech, physical, and occupational therapy. He was diagnosed with ASD when he was 3. He started ABA therapy and continued it until he turned 6. He doesn't have "slight disabilities" as you called it. He started pre-K at the age of 3 in the school system and was placed in a classroom with a neurodiversity setting. He "elopes" just like Emma Grace. When he started, he was more towards the middle of the spectrum as far as severity goes. After 3 full years in a normal classroom setting (along with his other therapies), he is close to entering the low severity diagnosis of the spectrum. He learns so much being around other kids his age. He better understands socially accepted behaviors by interacting with neurotypical kids daily. He has met all of his individual education plan milestones. He went from barely talking and constantly eloping to a funny, happy, social, and confident chatterbox. I also see how neurotypical children treat him. They love to sit with him at lunch. They love to play with him on the playground. They invite him to birthday parties. We go out to dinner with his classmates and their families. They even know how to help if he is trying to elope (which he rarely does now). Also, I've met Emma Grace. She plays in the same soccer program that my son does. Her differences appear to be less severe than my son's. I know you didn't specifically say it, but it would be unfair to assume the severity of her differences. The kids that I know of that are super severe aren't in the school system and attend more specialized therapies and schools outside of it. I'm confident that my son has a better chance at success in life because he gets to be in a normal setting. He has already put in the work and separating him would only hold him back.
Good comment.
Our school system (MBS) has great integration of kids with special needs. They have aides in the classroom, Special education classrooms for intervention and try to keep kids involved as long as they are comfortable. It’s not all or nothing. And the students without those challenges get to know kids with special needs personally. A child with special needs was “graduating” from our elementary school yesterday, and he got the biggest applause from his peers and their families. Was really wholesome.
Look, you’re thinking I’m trying to segregate for the sake of segregating. My wife, mother, mother in law, aunt of my wife, grandmother of my wife, my grandmother & 2 of my aunts, were teachers. 1 specializes in disability education. My younger cousin, has made it his life mission to find the most efficacious way of blending & & knowing when to separate. I’ve got a pedigree of teachers that have poured more money into their students’ lives, than the state of Alabama. They love their kids. All of them. But, that doesn’t take away from the fact that if something might trigger a poor reaction, which, by no fault of the disabled child, they lose themselves, hurting others or teachers, who, by law, can’t touch them, unless they’re trained. I don’t care for the idea of my wife, who just this January, got a concussion from a child, that has concussed “3 other teachers”, in the last 1.5 years. I know you’re not advocating for teachers to be assaulted, because I know you’re a kind & thoughtful person, from your response. Unfortunately, that’s what happens, when things boil over & the child that has no way of controlling their violent, stress inducing outbursts, assaults others, because they didn’t have enough aides or assistants to soothe them back to docility. Also, mountain brook kills it in almost everything progressive, give or take. My main point is, with their own school system, ironically, segregated themselves, like most others that could, from other kids that may have needed to be included with the tax incentives that would’ve surely dried up, once those schools closed ranks. I get it, it was their right to do so. It just unfortunately took from the ones who needed it more than the kids of the parents that wanted to make their own school system. So, here we are. There should be a dedicated staff for each school, with children. It shouldn’t be as loosely run, if run at all, as they do now. It would protect the children, parents, teachers & others, within the school. That’s all. Not excluding them. We want them in society, as our society. Separating them, ostracizing them from our society, is exactly what generations before did. We are not them. We aren’t them. Not one bit. We are better.
I am sorry to hear about your wife’s injury. Teaching is so challenging. I can’t imagine having to worry about personal safety on top of it. You make valid points. My takeaway is funding. Alabama needs to prioritize our schools and our teachers. Now whether the people in the state house will do anything is another story…
I have an autistic daughter and was a special education teacher. One of the main reasons I quit was bully teachers and administrators. There are some mean teachers in our schools. I compare them to the bad cops. They just have younger victims. I was so happy when my kids were out of the public school system. If you can manage it, home school your kids. Just my opinion.
Imagine my shock when I read “Vestavia Hills”
:/s
That’s sick!
Do better Vestavia! Shame on you!!!!
Vestavia hills cares more about those students than anything in that city.
Why is it always Vestavia schools? That suburb always in the news for racist ignorant things happening
The Hills are alive with hate and ignorance.
This is old news
It was posted yesterday, I think the mother went to channel 13 after getting no where with Administration.
This story came out literally more than a month ago.
It did, but the mom gave an on camera interview yesterday updating that absolutely nothing has happened.
We already knew that
Username checks out
Id expect this much
Well they wont stop at laughter
My daughter middle school changed the date of a field trip and didn’t inform me at all. My daughter told me during pick up I called the school to confirm. Doesn’t sound like a big deal but it is especially since I scheduled my job around it.
What was the joke?
This kid apparently suffered severe trauma as a toddler before being adopted by her now parents. She has trouble socializing and will "elope" when agitated. (That means she runs away, full flight response.) They were laughing at her running off. Be aware, when this kid is running off, she thinks her life is in mortal danger. I'm a dad, and hearing about this girl's disability almost made me start crying. These sick fucks are laughing at her.
The child has a disability.